When Pete Lazareff kayaks around Sydney Harbour, he is astounded by the number of abandoned boats he sees.
“I've been kayaking for a long time,” the Balmain resident said. “You see old diesel boats up around near the Dawn Fraser pool; you see the old things sitting there and bits of oily substance coming out the back.
The sight is not uncommon according to environment and marine advocates, who have warned that rusting and unseaworthy boats that linger on Sydney Harbour and leak oil and fuel are threatening marine life and waterways.
There are more than 6,700 private and commercial moorings across Sydney and surrounding areas including Sydney Harbour, Pittwater, Botany Bay/Georges River, Brisbane Water, Upper Hawkesbury, Brooklyn and Port Hacking.
If they are not docked at an official marina where spaces are limited and expensive to hire, boat owners can pay for a 12-month mooring licence to anchor their vessels at sites managed by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS).
RMS mooring fees range from $325 a year for a vessel under seven metres in Sydney and Pittwater, to $5,904 for a 25-metre boat in East Sydney Harbour.
But Clean Up Australia founder and round-the-world yachtsman Ian Kiernan has urged the regulators to enforce minimum moorings. “We've got to realise that Sydney Harbour or any of our waterways are not parking lots,” he told ABC Radio Sydney.
Read the rest of the story at ABC Radio.
